Hi sweetie,
We spent the afternoon and evening at Walt Disney World. It was a totally different experience than Island Adventures, which is part of Universal Studios theme park. Heidi really continues to concern me with her behavior. It was hot and humid today and Heidi's level of irritability skyrocketed and her frustration level is about zero. She was blowing her fuse every few minutes today.
If I had to do today over again I would have had us stay at Epcot Center all day. It was infinitely more interesting there and had all kinds of educational stuff that would have fascinated the kids. Well ... the kids had this idea of going to the Magic Kingdom first to get autographs of the Disney characters, then we'd go over to Epcot and do all these fascinating activities. Best laid plans ...
We were late, first of all. If you'd been on this trip you either would have had us up and out and dawn or you'd be really ticked at how long it took us to get our act together to get going. We slept until 9:15. We still had to get breakfast and didn't leave until 10:30 because the kids were fighting. That really has been a sore point this whole trip.
We had to stop at the drug store for some necessities so we didn't actually get going to Disney World until around 1. There wasn't a lot of traffic, which was nice, and we had no trouble finding the Epcot Center and took a trolley train to the park. From there we took the monorail to the Magic Kingdom.
It was pretty hot in spite of a cool breeze. We didn't have a good supply of water and so everyone was hot and grumpy, especially Heidi. The first thing we did when we got to the Magic Kingdom was fill our water bottles. We did a little shopping and then went inside. Heidi had made a list of all the attractions they wanted to see but it sorta went out the window when a parade cut off traffic to Fantasyland. We went to Adventureland instead and straight off I got us cool drinks and fruit/ice cream mixes. Billy and Kristin did the Swiss Family Robinson attraction while Heidi and I waited.
We were going to try a boat ride but that didn't work out and decided instead to take the train in Frontierland (adjacent to Adventureland) back to Main street and catch the monorail back to Epcot Center. Well when we got back to Main Street the kids said they were hungry so we left our name with an Italian restaurant that was very crowded but promised to seat us within 30-40 minutes. There was no place to sit inside so the girls & I went outside while Billy watched TV. The idea was that when they called our name, he'd come and get us.
Meanwhile, we're trying to make ourselves comfortable outside, sitting on a wall. Heidi's level of irritability was on the rise and she blew up at me for something, calling me stupid ... and these other people are looking at me as Heidi's saying "I hate you" and I'm wishing I could just disappear into the earth. What the hell am I supposed to do with this kid anyway?
Billy forgot to listen for our names and so we were passed over and they put us to the end of the list. I was really upset with Heidi and so I said let's eat at Epcot Center and took off.
By the time we got there, it was almost 7 and by the time we were done eating it was after 8. What a shame. The one ride we tried, Body Wars, was really fascinating. It was a virtual trip through the human body and the ride had lots of cool special effects. There were several exhibits there that would have been so cool ... well, if we knew then what we know now, we would have spent the day at Epcot. Live and learn.
The kids liked Island Adventures much better because we got to see and do a lot more of the attractions. I also believe it had a lot to do with the weather. It was first rainy and then cloudy that day.
We got there late too, at about noon. We got started late, stopped at Dunkin donuts for breakfast, got lost for almost and hour and when we got to Universal, it was raining pretty hard. We passed through Citywalk all right and then went straight to the Spiderman ride, which seems to be THE ride right now. From there we visited other places in the park, sometimes just stopping long enough to take a picture.
I guess I would say that this has been a fun vacation, Rich. I wish you were here in your skin so I could talk to you about it. I still miss you a lot, sweetheart. I feel stronger, like I have a sudden surge of self respect and pride, because I was able to make this trip. I think it went well at least 75% of the time. The kids seemed happy.
I still miss you though, my sweetie.
Love,
Me